My Lover, My Protector
by WindyCity96
Summary: (Part 5 of the Romanogers Soulmate Series) Whenever Steve and Natasha's lives are the line, they always know they can count on each other.
1. Chapter 1

Steve lay on the shattered window of a turned-over bus, the first Avenger having barely escaped the Winter Soldier and his allies with his life. The first Avenger had been on his way to stop the launch of Project Insight when he, Natasha and Sam had been attacked. Steve didn't know where Sam and Natasha were, but he had to find him. They needed to get to the Triskelion. Before Pierce could-,

_BANG!_

Steve's vision turned black and white as the sound of a gunshot rang through the air, a bullet of icy pain shooting through his chest. The soldier brought a hand to his chest, desperate to keep himself from bleeding out. Only, there was no blood. The bullet hadn't hit him.

And yet, he could feel it. The icy touch of death spreading across his chest. If he wasn't the one shot, the why was-? Oh God, Natasha.

When Steve was young, his mother would always say that she knew the exact moment that Steve's father died. That when her husband took his final breath, Sarah Rogers' vision turned black and white, while her lungs burned with the sting of mustard gas. If that was true-,

The first Avenger scrambled out of the bus and scanned the battle-torn highway, spotting Natasha Romanoff hiding behind a bullet-sprayed car, the fiery red light of her soul flickering as she clutched the bleeding bullet wound in her shoulder. While the Winter Soldier prepared to take the final shot.

Steve grit his teeth as he ran into the battle, the Winter Soldier lowering his gun as he raised a fist. Steve raised his shield in self-defense as the Winter Soldier threw a massive punch with his mechanical arm, the sound of the colliding metals ringing like the starting bell of a heavyweight title fight. And so, Captain America began to fight harder than he ever had before.

* * *

"You felt me dying? What do you mean you felt me dying?"

Natasha Romanoff sat with Steve in Nick Fury's safehouse, the spy nursing her wounds while the soldier explained the brutality of his fight with the Winter Soldier, now identified as Bucky Barnes. Natasha had never seen Steve fight like that before. Not at New York. Not on their missions for SHIELD. Not even in the old newsreel footage of him and the Howling Commandos in World War Two.

"I don't know any other way to describe it," Steve explained "When the Winter-when Bucky," he corrected, still trying to accept the fact that his oldest friend was Hydra's number one assassin "shot you, my whole world turned black and white. I started getting really, really cold. And when I saw you, surrounded by the beautiful light of your soul, but something was wrong. It was flickering, like a light bulb that needed to be changed. And when I saw Bucky sneaking up behind you, I knew that if didn't do something, that beautiful light would go out. And I couldn't let that happen."

Now Natasha knew why she felt so safe around Steve. Because he would fight until his last breath for the people in need. Especially those he cared for. And now, she was at the top of that list. "You know, you never told me what color my soul is," she whispered, as a hint of her native accent slipped through "You are the only one who can see it, after all."

"Red," he answered, running a gentle hand through her hair "The same beautiful red as this."

"That explains why you always notice when I change it." Natasha was always experimenting with her hair. Both for work and for herself. And Steve was always the first to compliment her on it.

"So what about me? What color is my soul?"

"Blue," Natasha told him "The same blue as your eyes." The soldier and the spy nervously pulled away from each other as Sam Wilson walked by "Unless we want the entire intelligence community to know about us, we should probably keep things professional until this mission is over," she whispered. The Black Widow tilted her head as she felt she felt a harsh chill run down her spine. "What is it?"

"What happened on the highway," Steve stayed silent for a moment as he swallowed a growing lump in his throat "I don't know if I'm going to be able to do it again, Nat."

"Steve," Natasha gave the soldier as soft smile as she reminded "as much as I adore how safe I feel around you, I don't need you to be a knight in shining armor."

"I know. And I would never try to do that," he assured her quickly "I know that you're that type of woman that wants someone to fight the dragons with you, not for you. Your strength and capability in the field are some of the many things that I admire about you. It's just, you are the only thing that makes me feel like I belong in this world," Steve explained "and now I know that if something goes wrong, I'll feel it. Whether we're three feet apart or three hundred miles. And the thought of something happening to you and me not being able to do anything about it, darling that scares me," he confessed "in ways you can't even imagine. I guess what I'm trying to say is, please be careful?"

Natasha took note of the desperation in his voice and nodded. "I will."


	2. Chapter 2

"Ow. Those really do sting."

Natasha groaned as Nick Fury helped off the boardroom floor, the security council dead at their feet.

The former director of SHIELD let out sigh of relief. "Next time, warn somebody before you do that."

"Now you know how I felt when you, aah!" The Black Widow let a cry of pain as she felt a bullet tear through her stomach, her world turning black and white as insides burst into flames.

"Natasha!" Nick quickly tightened his grip on the agents arm as her knees buckled, a deeply concerned look spreading across his face "Natasha, what's wrong?"

"Steve."

* * *

"Hill! Where's Steve? You got a location on Rogers?" Natasha's heart raced as she waited for Maria to answer, desperate to find her soulmate before he took his final breath.

"_He's still in the helicarrier."_

"What!?" Natasha's stomach twisted up in knots as she instructed the pilot to head toward the burning helicarrier, the massive aircraft carrier hurtling towards the ground. _Focus, _she thought _Find the blue light. _If what Steve saw when Barnes shot her really went both ways, then he should be surrounded in the blue light of his soul. But where? Where was it? Where was he? As the Black Widow desperately searched for any source of color in her black and white world, she spotted a tiny speck of blue floating beneath the waves of the water down below.

"There!" Natasha shouted, pointing a finger at the waves "He's there!"

"Where?" Sam asked "I don't see him."

But Natasha didn't have time to explain. Her soulmate was dying and if she didn't act soon, she would never see Steve again. So she put a gun to the pilot's head and told him to land, now. The Black Widow ran across the shore as fast as she could, leaving Fury and Sam in the dust, desperate to reach the first Avenger in time, coming to a stop when she spotted an unconscious Steve Rogers lying on the beach, surrounded by the flickering blue light of his soul. With the Winter Soldier standing over him.

The Black Widow quickly drew her gun, pointing it directly at his head, reading to pull the trigger at a moment's notice. The Winter Soldier held up his mechanical hand in surrender, slowly backing away as he headed off into the woods. Natasha should've gone after him. Should've shot him the second his back was turned. But in the end, all she could think about was one thing.

"Steve!" The Black Widow dropped her gun to the ground as she ran over to her soulmate's side, pressing her hands against the bleeding wound as she struggled to wake him. "Steve, I'm here. I'm here," she repeated, wishing, praying for her soulmate to wake up. To say something anything. "It's going to be okay sweetheart," she promised with tear-filled eyes "It's going to be okay."

* * *

Steve woke hours later in a groggy state, his bones and organs groaning in agony from his fight with Bucky, trying remember how he got here.

"Welcome back to the land of the living."

The super soldier glanced to his right as he heard a familiar voice, spotting Sam Wilson sitting next to him. "How did I-?"

"Natasha," Sam answered "I don't know how, but she saw you caught in the current, found you on the shore and brought you here."

Natasha. Steve should've known. "Is she-?"

"I'm here."

The former Air Force pilot jumped as the Black Widow appeared in the doorway. "You really are a super spy."

Steve smiled as he locked eyes with the former KGB agent, a gentle warmth washing over him. "Sam, can you give us a minute?"

The Falcon nodded, rising up out of his seat and stepping out of room, leaving the soldier and the spy alone.

"Thank you," Steve told her gratefully "You save my life."

"I owed you." Natasha smiled as she walked over to her soulmate's side, gently slipping her hand into his.

"How did you know where to find me?"

"I felt you dying." Natasha didn't to feel about what she'd just said "When I was in the security council room with Fury, I got this burning pain in my stomach. The world turned black and white. I looked for you," she told him, trying to keep her voice level "everywhere. And then I saw this speck of blue in the water. Shining like a star. And I followed its light to the shore. Where I found you." The former KGB operative took a calming breath, trying the shake the overwhelming terror of losing her soulmate now that she knew he was safe "So, soulmates can tell when the other's been majorly hurt."

"Guess so." Steve ran a gentle hand through her hair "Nice to know someone's always got my back on the battlefield."

"Yeah." Natasha felt a small smile spread across her face at the soldier's adoring look. "I have something for you." The spy reached over into her purse and pulled out a thin yellow folder wrapped in thread. "I made a call to Russia, cashed in an old favor."

Steve tilted his head as his soulmate handed him the old and weather file. "What is it?"

"Information on Barnes," Natasha answered, earning a shocked look from Steve "How he was trained, a few of the missions he went on. It's not much but-," The Black Widow finished her sentence with a small shrug, indicating that it was the best she could do.

Steve was in awe. "You never cease to amaze me, Miss Romanoff," he whispered, causing Natasha to blush.

"You're going after him, don't you?"

Steve nodded.

"Okay. I know a couple places we should check first."

"We?"

"Yeah. We." Natasha wrapped her hand around the back of her soulmate's neck, gently running her fingers through his hair. "I am not letting you out of my sight, Rogers. You'd probably get yourself shot again."


End file.
